Sunday, August 2, 2015

Blackberry Jelly


*This post contains Amazon affiliate links


Good evening all. My wife and I were lucky enough to discover a large blackberry patch by the parking lot of a local grocery store. With the wounds to show for it, we were able to pick enough blackberries to can 29 half pints jars of blackberry jelly.

The process was fairly straight forward, with the most time spent actually picking the berries. The recipe used was from the Mountain mama. We made a few changes in the process, and a minor variation to her recipe. The following process will yield approximately 7 half pint jars.

After spending several days collecting enough berries, we gathered the remaining ingredients as seen here.

Getting prepared

You might notice in the picture above, the frost on the blackberries. While gathering the needed berries over several days, We elected to store them in the freezer to preserve them until We had gathered enough berries. You will need 3-1/2 to 4 cups of blackberry juice. This past spring was fairly dry, so the blackberries were not, on average, as large we had hoped. We discovered that we needed 1 qt of berries for every cup of blackberry juice. Luckily, last summer, we found a juicer that was only used by a little old lady on Sundays at a yard sale for $10. I wasn’t sure at the time exactly what I would need it for, but as it turned out, it worked great for extracting the juice and more importantly, removing the seeds.

Loading the juicer



As you can see in the picture above, I simply loaded the juicer with berries, after they had thawed, and extracted the juice.


Extracting the juice

 I just repeated the process until I had 4 cups of juice. If you don’t have enough berries, you can add water to the juice to bring it up to 4 cups. My juicer removed 99% of the seeds, and believe me, there were a ton of them. To remove the remainder of the seeds, I strained the juice. You can strain the juice using cheesecloth. I had trouble finding cheesecloth the first time I made the jam when my wife mentioned I could use pantyhose. I needed something, so I figured why not. It actually worked pretty good and after finding some cheesecloth and trying it, I went back to the pantyhose. I just used a cheap pair of knee highs. It was easier to scoop the blackberry juice into them, than trying to keep the juice from flowing over the edges of the cheesecloth. I started to post the pictures, but my wife said they looked like I was performing surgery. I would have to agree with her, so I left those pictures out.

Another word of advice, when straining the blackberry juice, use rubber gloves. Blackberry juice stains everything. Also, when straining, don’t try to get every bit of the juice out. Pulp will gather at the bottom of the cheesecloth/pantyhose and you don’t want to put it back in your juice. It won’t affect the taste, but the final product will not be as clear.

Once you have strained your juice, you will probably want to start preparing your jars. Wash and dry your lids and rings and set them aside. Place the empty jars, without rings or lids on them, in your canning pot and cover with water. On medium high heat, bring the water/jars to 180 degrees F and “cook” for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you will want to keep the jars at 180 degrees until you need them.

Prep the jars



While the jars are “cooking”, you can go ahead and finish preparing the blackberry jelly.
In a large pot, add your 4 cups of blackberry juice, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and pectin. I used 6 tablespoons of Ball Realfruit Classic Pectin. The amount of pectin required may very based on the type of pectin you use. Make sure you follow the directions on the package.






Stirring the mixture

On medium high heat, bring the mixture to a rapid boil while stirring constantly. You want to boil the mixture for 1 minute. Next, add 5 cups of sugar to the mixture. You will want to stir constantly until all the sugar has dissolved and it starts to boil again. This will take about 10 minutes.

Adding the sugar

After the mixture returns to a rapid boil, continue to boil for 1 minute. Then remove from heat. Carefully, removed 1 jar from the simmering water bath.

Remove a jar for filling

 Fill the jar with the blackberry jelly, being sure to leave 1/4 inch of headspace.


Filling 1 jar at a time

After filling, use a damp cloth to clean the rim of the jar. Then place a lid and ring on the jar and finger tighten the ring. Repeat this process until all jars a filled.

Cleaning the rim of the jar

Place all filled jars in the canner basket and carefully lower into the 180 degree F water bath. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch. If you need to add water, then do so. Cover and bring water to a roiling boil and process for 10 minutes.

Processing the jelly

 After 10 minutes, remove from heat, remove cover and let the jars cool for 5 minutes.

5 minute cool down

After 5 minutes, remove the jars from the water bath and place on a dry towel. Do not retighten rings if they are loose. Let them cool for 12 hours.


12 hour cool down

After 12 hours, check the seals and store in a cool dry place. Enjoy!!!!!!


RECIPE
(4) cups of blackberry juice
(2) tablespoons of lemon juice
(6) tablespoons of Ball Realfruit Classic Pectin
(5) cups of sugar
Makes a little more than 7 half-pints jars.

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